Nero's Golden Palace

Nero's Golden Palace was a lavish, 300-acre palace built by the Roman emperor Nero after the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. The gilded and bejewelled palace contained vineyards, pastures with flocks, groves, and a manmade lake, created after the aqueducts of Rome were diverted away from the civilian populace. Nero also commissioned the construction of a 35-meter-tall bronze statue of himself to be placed outside the main entrance. There were over 300 rooms in the palace, and one room had a revolving ceiling that rained rose petals onto guests; slaves in another room powered this mechanism. After Nero's suicide in 68 AD, the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian built on top of the palace, burying it. Finally, Trajan built the Terme di Traiano bathhouse on top of the palace, causing for it to be forgotten until Ezio Auditore da Firenze rediscovered it in 1500 during the Renaissance.